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Home buyer activity has risen throughout the summer months to more typical levels in Metro Vancouver.

The Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board (REBGV) reports that in August 2019, residential home sales in the region totaled 2,231, a 15.7% increase from the 1,929 sales recorded in August 2018, and a 12.7% decrease from the 2,557 homes sold in July 2019.

Sales last month were 9.2 percent below the average sales in August for 10 years.

“In July and August, home sales returned to a more historically ordinary level than in the first six months of the year.,” said REBGV President Ashley Smith.

At Metro Vancouver in August 2019, there were 3,747 detached, attached and newly listed apartment properties for sale on the Multiple Listing Service ® (MLS ®).This represents a decline of 3.5 percent compared to the 3,881 households mentioned in August 2018 and a decline of 18.8 percent compared to the 4,613 homes mentioned in July 2019.

The total number of homes currently listed on Metro Vancouver’s MLS ® system for sale is 13,396, a 13.3% increase over August 2018 (11,824) and a 5.9% decline over July 2019 (14,240).

For all property types, the sales-to-active listings ratio for August 2019 is 16.7 per cent. By type of property, the percentage for detached homes is 12%, for townhouses 18.4% and for apartments 21.2%.

Analysts generally claim downward pressure on home prices happens when the ratio falls below 12 percent over a continuous period of time, while home prices often experience upward pressure when they exceed 20 percent over several months.

“With more demand from home buyers, the supply of listed households for sale does not accumulate as in the previous year. These modifications create a more balanced market situation,” Smith said.

The composite benchmark cost of the MLS ® Home Price Index for all Metro Vancouver housing properties is presently $993,300. This reflects a decline of 8.3 percent over August 2018 and a decline of 0.2 percent over July 2019.

Detached house sales reached 706 in August 2019, up 24.5% from 567 detached sales in August 2018. For detached homes, the benchmark price is $1,406,700. This represents a decline of 9.8 percent from August 2018 and a decline of 0.7 percent from July 2019.

In August 2019, sales of apartment houses reached 1,116, an increase of 8.9 percent compared to August 2018’s 1,025 sales.A property’s benchmark cost is $654,000. This reflects a decline of 7.4 percent from August 2018 and an increase of 0.1 percent from July 2019.

Attached home sales totaled 409 in August 2019, up 21.4 percent from August 2018’s 337 revenues. A unit’s benchmark cost is $771,000. This represents a decline of 7.8% from August 2018, up 0.2% from July 2019.

The Armoury District, one of the latest acknowledged neighborhoods in the city, is scarcely a century old. But the area has seen an influx of architects, interior designers, retail shops and cafés over the past 10 years to complement the high-end vehicle dealerships that have been its most prominent characteristic for a while.

Shop

The Spirit Wrestler Gallery was founded in 1995 and is one of the longest running businesses in the area. Inuit, Northwest Coast and Maori artists are on display in the gallery. Gallery Jones exhibits contemporary art by artists from Canada and abroad. Visit Three Centuries and J.H. for antiquities. Tee Antiques (a specialty for state silverware) ; Westbridge Fine Art Auction House has a ticket for fine art. But this neighborhood is really about home decoration, with shops featuring cabinetry and floors (Troico and Frontier, respectively), home line of Giorgio Armani (Armani / Casa), patio furniture (Brougham), and more.

Dine

Some of the best examples of indulgences from Vancouver turn the neighborhood into a location for food. For top-of – the-line cheeses and sweets, these include Les Amis du Fromage and Chocolate Arts. Speaking of indulgences, Bel Café’s second location just opened here by famous chef David Hawksworth, and is the place to be seen eating French macaroons and gourmet sandwiches.

Play

People don’t necessarily come to the Armoury District in search of parks, playgrounds or cultural activities (though the Indian Summer Festival offices are situated here). The fun here is of the aspirational kind: visiting local stores, designers and galleries, and playing with thoughts about the kind of life you want to live in / the setting you want to live in. And if you’re really aspiring, you’d like to ride the Lamborghini model.Live and work.

In this stretch of the town there may not be many condos, but there are plenty in neighboring regions such as the Olympic Village and a little further south in Kitsilano. The Armoury District itself is all about shopping and working, and here are several architectural, growth and interior design companies.

Meeting the mortgage demands and being approved is already challenging enough, but securing a mortgage in 2019 is even more of a feat thanks to the recent mortgage stress test.

Let’s look at the new mortgage rules in greater detail and how it impacts home buyers in 2019.

Explained Canadian Mortgage stress test

In order to pass the mortgage stress test, You will need to qualify for your loan interest rate plus 2% or the present five-year benchmark rate of the Bank of Canada, whichever of the two is greater. As of this writing, The five-year benchmark rate of the Bank of Canada is 5.34 percent and has existed since May 2018.

For example, if you are applying for a mortgage at a rate of 3.65%, then your lender will assess you as if you were paying your home loan at 5.65% (3.65% + 2%) since 5.65% is greater than the Bank of Canada’s five-year benchmark rate.

Because of this stress test, Most new homebuyers have had their purchasing power reduced by as much as 20 percent because they are only eligible for a reduced loan at the stress-tested mortgage ratesThe fresh stress test regulations have also rendered refinancing or renewing their mortgage more hard for present homeowners.

How to Prepare For the Mortgage Stress Test

Lenders use a few key metrics when assessing borrowers to make sure they’d be able to pass the stress test and manage mortgage payments, including the gross debt service ratio (GDS) and total debt service ratio (TDS).

Gross debt service ratio (GDS) – Your GDS is the proportion of your pre-tax revenue needed to pay all cost of accommodation. In addition to your stress-tested monthly mortgage payment, your lender will look at the expense of all other monthly expenditures, including condo charges, utility bills, and property taxes.

Your gross monthly revenue will add all these expenses together and divide them. Ideally, lenders want a proportion not exceeding 32%.

Total debt service ratio (TDS) – All of your debts will also need to be factored into the equation, so lenders will look at your TDS as well. This is how much of your monthly revenue is required to cover your debts properly.

To better prepare yourself for the stress test, consider taking the following actions:

Pay down your debt. As already mentioned, Your lender will examine all the debt you presently carry and determine if you would qualify for a mortgage or not. The smaller your current debt load, the lower your TDS will be.

In turn, The findings of your stress test may be more favorable. To prevent paying so much in interest fees, focus first on paying down your high-interest debt (such as your credit cards).

Apply for a smaller loan amount. Be realistic about how much house you can actually afford. You might have your sights set on a home in the $900,000 price range, but if you look at homes in the $700,000 range instead, you might make things much more financially feasible for yourself.

This will not only improve your chances of passing the stress test and obtaining a mortgage approval, but it can also free up more of your income and prevent you from going “house poor.”

Crunch some numbers. Ask yourself if you can afford to pay an extra $500, for example, In mortgage payments if rates raise suddenly after approval.

You could be comfortable making monthly mortgage payments of $1,000, for instance, But what if you had to throw an extra $500? Would that be doable? Or would that throw you into a financial frenzy?

That’s precisely why this stress test was carried out. In the near future, if you are confronted with greater prices, your lender would want to make sure that you are still able to create complete payments each month rather than face default.

To own commercial property, you don’t need to be rich, and there are more opportunities with the downturns in the Vancouver and Toronto markets.

Chris Catliff, The President and CEO of Blueshore Financial, says for middle-class investors, there are other methods to enter the property business.

He lately shared five tips with those considering building up their commercial real estate retirement portfolio.:

Start small with a REIT

To own commercial property, you don’t need to be rich, Catliff said. “In fact, my son is already invested in a Tax-Free Savings Account with a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT).”

A REIT is a company that owns, operates and pays dividends on a variety of real estate assets on behalf of a pool of investors who purchased shares or stocks.

“They have relatively high yields compared to the broader market, or bonds or Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs),” he said. They’re typically riskier than government bonds or GICs but much less risky than tech stocks.

The purchase of shares in a REIT basically includes a collection of assets across the nation.Some REITs focus on the office sector, others on apartment or industrial or retail properties

“That diversifies your risk,” he said, adding that most REITs can be purchased through a stock broker, financial advisor or online through your direct investing platform.

Invest in a strata unit

For bolder middle-class investors — and ones who don’t mind a bit more work — you could buy your own strata unit in a commercial development, Catliff said.

Like with condo residential buildings, many developers build strata commercial buildings in various asset classes including office, retail and industrial..

Buy in a place you can visit

Catliff said he likes to own units in buildings he’s familiar with and can visit. “I purchased business units on my drive to work so I could see them twice a day..”

That’s so you can see what kind of development is taking place around your building and stay familiar with the market and the other tenants, he said.

Think urban

More than three-fifths of immigrants to Canada are settling in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, Catliff said. That means demand for homes, jobs and work space will continue to grow along with the population in those areas.

More demand for your space means less cash flow risk.

Catliff said it’s important to understand the supply and demand elements of your local market. In places like Vancouver and Toronto, demand for small industrial warehouse space or small light-manufacturing units has never been stronger.

Demand is also high for small street-front retail spaces in urban cores. There will always be people trying to buy themselves a job with a business like a sandwich shop or small restaurant, Catliff said. “There is just a lineup of people waiting for that kind of space.”

Do your homework

“You really have to consider location,” he said. “You’re looking for high traffic. How easy is it to rent out to somebody else? Anything downtown pretty much has a lineup of people. If it’s in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Kelowna, you can always rent something out, it’s just a matter of what return you get.”

In the suburbs, anything you purchase should be considered for its future redevelopment potential, he added. “In the burbs… you’re (often) holding land until development comes to you.”

PARTISANS, Their proposal for the Expo 2020 Canada Pavilion, entitled “Portal,” were unveiled in collaboration with HXouse and Besix. The pavilion aims to generate an “alluring architectural invitation to step into the Canadian identity.” Visitors to the scheme experience the varied social context that makes Canada a model for the globe, using information collection and AI to re-conceive the varied population of the country as a crystalline interactive cloud generated by AI.

The pavilion is conceived as a porous cloud sheltering galleries of exhibitions and shaded semi-public spaces. The crystalline dendritic form, produced almost completely from computation, has an openness that reflects Canadian culture’s diversity. The resulting cloud-like form “defines a land of boundless opportunities on which its residents ‘ dreams are digitally projected in real time.”

The shape of the pavilion is also influenced by climate. Apart from the interlocking panels capturing and interacting with changing sunlight, the canopy is a natural ventilation conduit. Integrating water characteristics helps create a microclimate within the canopy, while evoking regional water uses for aesthetic and auditory pleasure.

A sculpture designed by an indigenous Canadian artist will be placed at the heart of the system, resting above a reflective pong. Exhibitions, conference rooms, VIP areas and administrative spaces are also located within the cloud, all located within easy climate-controlled boxes.

The federal agency states in a report that Vancouver’s “evidence of price acceleration” has eased to low, prompting a downsizing as “extremely vulnerable” after 12 successive quarters.

“While home price growth has considerably outstripped rates backed by fundamentals over the previous few years, these imbalances have reduced in various sections of the resale industry through fundamental development and reduced home prices.,” CMHC said in its latest Housing Market Assessment report.

The agency said a moderate degree of vulnerability continues at the domestic level, but imbalances have declined over the previous year between house prices and the basics of the housing market. Some markets like Toronto and Victoria, however, are at greater risk.

Nationally, The inflation-adjusted average cost reduced by 5.6% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2019 from the same period a year previously, CMHC said.

In the previous quarter’s report, CMHC lowered its rating for Canada’s overall housing market from to moderate from high vulnerability – where it had stood for 10 consecutive quarters – as mortgage stress tests introduced last year made it harder for homebuyers to qualify and eased price acceleration.

The recent market forecast by the Canadian Real Estate Association published in June projects that the domestic average cost will drop to about $485,000 by the end of this year, compared to the 4.1% decrease reported in 2018.

Recent statistics from Greater Vancouver’s Real Estate Board showed that a home in Metro Vancouver’s benchmark cost dropped to $998,700 in June, the first time since May 2017 it fell below the $1 million mark.

The Bank of Canada in May also said that housing prices in the key markets of Vancouver and Toronto have cooled, but imbalances in real estate markets are still an important vulnerability for the overall financial system.

The vulnerability assessment of CMHC is based on several criteria including cost acceleration, overvaluation, overbuilding, and overheating. It examines the degree of vulnerability and aims to define housing market imbalances.

Toronto, Hamilton and Victoria continue to be highly vulnerable, but in all three markets, overheating, price speed and overvaluation show signs of decline.

Make sure you understand the real price before you begin your next large project.

Home Ownership is more expensive than the original down payment. You are most probably going to need to do some kind of refurbishment at some stage.

while sometimes renovations are factored into the price of purchasing a home, sometimes homeowners choose to do the projects later down the highway. So what precisely is costing some of the most famous remodels?

Clever, a platform intended to link agents, buyers, and vendors of real estate, recently surveyed 1,000 homeowners about post-purchase home expenses. The findings showed not only what individuals were spending on renovating, but also how much they believed expenditure would cost in advance. And rarely did the two rates align.

The study questioned homeowners what renovations they were planning to undertake over the next five years, as well as what the price would be anticipated. The five most popular planned renovations were:

Landscaping

Bathroom Remodel

New flooring

Kitchen Remodel

New patio or deck

The homeowners were conscious of which renovations would cost the most, and indeed relatively accurate. They estimated kitchen remodeling would be the most expensive projects, followed by the new deck, then the remodeling of the bathroom.

But when it came to the real price of those renovations, the homeowners were far away.

For example, homeowners estimated new flooring costs at $1,985, while the actual reported cost is $2,863, according to HomeAdvisor.

Estimates in kitchen and bathroom renovations were even more incorrect. The homeowners estimated the cost of redoing their bathroom at $2,406, but the true cost report from HomeAdvisor reveals that it is closer to $9,723.

As for kitchen renovations, homeowners properly thought that at an estimated $4,773 it would be the most expensive of projects. The real average kitchen refurbishment price recorded? A gigantic $22,134—about a fresh Mini Cooper’s price.

The report serves as a reminder that it may cost more than you expect your dream kitchen. Be sure to budget wisely as you plan your next renovation so you don’t get stuck with sticker shock.

Timing can be all. And, according to some estimates, selecting the correct time to purchase or sell a house might save you tens of thousands of bucks.

Best time to sell

While there is a tendency for customers to choose from more inventory in the spring, there is generally more competition as well, which is good for vendors.

After evaluating states some Experts concluded actual property information, the Experts up with that report. It showed that May had the largest sales amount compared to any other month of the year and that prices tended to be greater.

Possible reasons for that is that aside from nicer weather, a home tends to show better in spring and summer. More buyers may also be ready to buy as they might be using their tax refunds for the down payment. Plus, if they have kids, moving in summer means schooling isn’t interrupted.

Report added that selling in May can get you $60,000 more than if you were to sell in January, on average over the past five.

Best time to buy

“If someone lists a house in the winter, it’s a pretty secure bet they’re keen vendors and more open to negotiation. If not, they’d wait for the spring, a Reporter said”.

Also, sellers may be more driven to accept an offer in January as the holiday credit card bills start rolling in, Reporter said. Purchasers can also enjoy the holidays themselves.

“The house of somebody can be an emotional attachment, so the vendor thinks, ‘ If they are prepared to create an offer on Christmas Day of all days, they must really enjoy this house.’

“And another factor that comes into play is … individuals are in nice and generous moods on Christmas Day so they might very well be prepared to accept less cash than they usually would any other day..”

During the holidays, people who are just sick and tired of shows can be another motivator, like B.C. Realtor’s point was made. She said she had some “very nice offers” about Christmas for customers.

June house sales across Greater Vancouver were the lowest since 2000 because for the first time in two years, the benchmark cost for all households in the region fell below $1 million.

The Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board (REBGV) claims 2,077 homes sold in June, down 14.4 percent year-on-year and down 21.3 percent from this year’s May.

According to the board, sales were also 34.7 percent below the June 10-year average and the 19-year lowest for the month.

The pace of new market listings has slackened, with a 10% fall in new homes added to the market since June 2018, the REBGV said.

However, inventory continued to stack up, with just under 15,000 homes listed for sale — up 25.3 per cent from the same month last year and up a modest 1.9 per cent from May 2019, it said.

As sales continue to soften so, too, do prices.

The benchmark price for all home types was $998,700 in June, the lowest it has been since May 2017, the REBGV said.

For detached homes across the region, the benchmark price was $1,423,500, down 10.9 per cent year over year and 9.2 per cent over three years but up 0.1 per cent from May.

For apartments, the benchmark price was $654,700 in June, down 8.9 per cent year over year and 1.4 per cent from May.

Drilling deeper into numbers shows some wilder swings in pricing.

The benchmark price for a detached home in West Vancouver was down 12.9 per cent from last June. It was also down 13.1 per cent in Richmond, 14 per cent on Vancouver’s west side and 12.6 per cent in South Burnaby.

Condo prices, which have better resisted the cool-down, also saw significant movement in some sub-regions.

The benchmark price of a condo was below $500,000 in Ladner, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam and Tsawwassen and under $600,000 in East Vancouver, Coquitlam, New Westminster and North Vancouver.

The REBGV said the sluggish market means buyers are seeing the most choice in five years but that sellers continue to hold on, hoping for “yesterday’s value for their homes.”

Janis Nicolay for The best way to declutter your home is stop buying things by Rebecca Keillor.

“I really try and encourage people to think quality over quantity,” she says.

One area of our lives that is becoming increasingly cluttered but has often been left out of the spotlight is our digital devices, Stoller says.

“You can have a perfectly decluttered house and then you go to your computer and you can’t find anything,” she says.

This is another form of mental clutter, she says, and can be just a debilitating as any overcrowded room in your home.

“Our minds are so overwhelmed by our inboxes with social media, and our computers are now becoming a mess.,” she says.

The decluttering approach of Marie Kondo advises people to pick up an item and ask if it “sparks joy ;” if it doesn’t, we’re going to thank it for its service and get rid of it. Stoller says this doesn’t appeal to everyone, with some individuals wishing clearing out a more practical, perhaps quick-fire strategy.

If you want to stick to your decluttering habits, don’t attempt to tackle your entire home ; you’re just going to get bored and give up, tells Stoller. It’s going to do it ten minutes a day, she claims. Like Kondo, Stoller advises that you choose a category to organize, such as clothes or books, rather than a space.

Decluttering instruments, such as boxes labeled “donate” and “sell” (which Stoller sells through her website come down) that you can maintain in your closet are useful if you want to consolidate fresh practices, she suggests.

“They’re pretty fabric baskets and seeing them everyday will encourage you to use them every day.”

Office

The data relating to real estate on this web site comes in part from the MLS® Reciprocity program of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver or the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board. Real estate listings held by participating real estate firms are marked with the MLS® Reciprocity logo and detailed information about the listing includes the name of the listing agent. This representation is based in whole or part on data generated by the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver or the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board which assumes no responsibility for its accuracy. The materials contained on this page may not be reproduced without the express written consent of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver or the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board. Listing data last updated 2019-09-15T06:17:03Z.